As I said, two years or so to late. All foreign banks have as far as possible left town, leaving the Irish government - NAMA and so on and the ECB holding the bag. But of course most Irish private capital has fled these banks too.

And now you have this cunning plan that foreign holders of Irish government bonds are unworthy and domestic holders are worthy. That is fine as as far defending the interest of the Irish elite goes, but why is that now suddenly a pan-european progressive project?

How about all depositors, whatever their nationality, get saved up to a certain amount (say 100k to be ridiculously generous). Then you save as many of the rest as you can in some order that derives from whatever your strategic bargaining plan is as Jake outlined.

There have been suggestions that Ireland doesn't even have enough money to guarantee all deposits up to 100k. I find that hard to believe, but it's within the realm of possibility, given what we've seen worldwide in the last 3 1/2 years.

Keynesianism is intellectually hard, as evidenced by the inability of many trained economists to get it - Paul Krugman

And now you have this cunning plan that foreign holders of Irish government bonds are unworthy and domestic holders are worthy.

Far from it! I advocate and support claw-backs from all involved in this debacle. Every cent obtained by executives and board members and all income received by politicians and regulators regardless of how it has been sequestered in property, trusts, etc. This should apply to all profiting from these banks, Irish, British, German, etc.

We need to return private banking to the days of unlimited personal responsibility of the bankers for the solvency of their institutions. The state can clean up damage to others, but should see that the full burden of fiascoes fall on the bankers themselves. Current policy is the exact opposite. That is the core problem.